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Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.

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Speaker 1: This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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Speaker 2: Today's tip is that when it comes to work life balance,

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Speaker 2: flexibility matters more than ours.

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Speaker 1: Being able to move.

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Speaker 2: Work around on dimensions of time and place means you

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Speaker 2: can work quite a few hours and still feel like

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Speaker 2: you have a full personal life too. So here's a

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Speaker 2: question to ponder. Let's say something interesting or cool in

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Speaker 2: your personal life was happening at eleven am on a Wednesday.

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Speaker 2: Maybe your elementary school age child is a performing in

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Speaker 2: a school talent show. Or if you don't have kids,

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Speaker 2: let's say it's your niece or your godson, but it

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Speaker 2: is something very important.

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Speaker 1: To the child. Would you be able to go? Would

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Speaker 1: it be easy? If it weren't particularly easy, how much

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Speaker 1: notice would you need? You will quickly see that the

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Speaker 1: answer to this question doesn't necessarily depend on how many

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Speaker 1: hours you work. Maybe you are a medical professional who

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Speaker 1: works part time. Let's say three eight hour days per week,

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Speaker 1: but you are normally doing patient procedures on Wednesdays, and

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Speaker 1: these are scheduled three months ahead of time, so you

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Speaker 1: really can't move them except for extreme emergencies. If the

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Speaker 1: talent show came to your attention three weeks ahead of time,

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Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't go. On the other hand, maybe you

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Speaker 1: are a consultant who travels a lot and logs fifty

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Speaker 1: plus hour work weeks, but you tend to decide where

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Speaker 1: and when you are going on any given day, whether

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Speaker 1: that is to visit a client, to work in your office,

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Speaker 1: or work at home. Unless the CEO of your biggest

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Speaker 1: client has asked for eleven am on that Wednesday, you

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Speaker 1: could probably make it work. That scenario describes my husband,

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Speaker 1: so he recently went to a special person's tea at

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Speaker 1: our four year old's preschool at eleven am on a Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: and then got on a train to go to Washington,

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Speaker 1: d C. For a meeting immediately afterwards. In other words,

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Speaker 1: it is possible that someone working part time hours wouldn't

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Speaker 1: be able to go to something, but someone working more

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Speaker 1: than full time hours would. It just depends on how

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Speaker 1: much flexibility you have. This is important to realize because

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Speaker 1: one of the most common questions I get from people

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Speaker 1: who are trying to make work and life fit together

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Speaker 1: is whether they should go part time. But if you

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Speaker 1: have to work, set out in a set place.

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Speaker 2: Going part time might not help as much as you want,

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Speaker 2: because the things you want to do won't always happen

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Speaker 2: during the hours that you are not working. Whereas, if

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Speaker 2: you can set your hours and work from home when

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Speaker 2: it makes sense to do so, you can work quite

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Speaker 2: a few hours and still be able to do things

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Speaker 2: during the traditional work day if you wish, that can

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Speaker 2: make work at life balance just feel far more possible.

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Speaker 2: There have been some studies finding that this distinction is

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Speaker 2: true and does affect how people feel about work in life.

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Speaker 2: Many years ago, before COVID made remote work a more

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Speaker 2: common choice, there was a study done of a group

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Speaker 2: of tech workers. Those who had to be in the

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Speaker 2: office at certain times could only work thirty eight hours

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Speaker 2: a week before a significant chunk of them experienced work

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Speaker 2: life conflict. For those who could set their own hours

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Speaker 2: and work from home when they wish to, that breakpoint

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Speaker 2: was fifty seven hours a week before a significant chunk

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Speaker 2: experienced work life conflict. In case you are doing the math,

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Speaker 2: fifty seven hours is fifty percent more hours than thirty

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Speaker 2: eight hours. We are talking an absolutely huge difference. Now,

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Speaker 2: the point of the Before Breakfast podcast is to give

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Speaker 2: useful tips you can put into your life, and I

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Speaker 2: am not sure that this tip can immediately be put

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Speaker 2: into practice. If your work involves being in a certain

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Speaker 2: place at a certain time, then that is what it is.

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Speaker 2: But if you are considering a new job, getting clear

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Speaker 2: on how flexible it is might be a more important

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Speaker 2: form of doute than seeing how many hours you will

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Speaker 2: be logging. You might also consider jobs that seem to

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Speaker 2: require longer hours but are very flexible. Ask if people

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Speaker 2: regularly work from home, or if you are considering going

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Speaker 2: part time in order to deal with complexities in your

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Speaker 2: personal life. See if your organization might be open to

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Speaker 2: your working far more flexibly instead. They might be happier

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Speaker 2: to have that option than to see you work less,

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Speaker 2: or you could find another organization that is more open

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Speaker 2: to your talents. But in any case, these days there

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Speaker 2: are a lot of full time and more than full

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Speaker 2: time jobs where it is possible to do things in

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Speaker 2: your personal life during the traditional work day. You might

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Speaker 2: be able to make the pieces of work and life

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Speaker 2: fit together better than you thought, so it's worth thinking

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Speaker 2: about in the meantime. This is Laura, Thanks for listening,

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Speaker 2: and here's to making the most of our time. Thanks

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Speaker 2: for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas,

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Speaker 2: or feedback, you can reach me at Laura at Laura

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Speaker 2: vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia.

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Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit the iHeartRadio app,

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Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.